Compex will continue to offer clearly structured, transparent licenses. Compex customers will always have free choice between solutions on premise or in the cloud. With this commitment, Compex is sending a clear signal into a market, in which more and more users feel pressured to move their solutions into the cloud, pay for subscriptions rather than buy perpetual licenses, and continually adapt their solutions to unsolicited updates.
Compex sells perpetual licenses, i.e. Compex customers buy permanent usage rights. The license fees are based on very few parameters, primarily the maximum number of concurrent users. Compex has organized its extensive standard software, Compex Commerce, into independent modules that cover their respective functional areas completely. This means that customers are free to buy only one or some of these modules and that these modules are fully functional on their own. New releases of Compex Software are being made available to customers as part of their portal contract at no extra cost. New releases are always kept compatible with their respective predecessors. In Germany, Compex concludes its contracts in accordance with German law.
“Our license prices and license conditions fit on less than two A4 pages. There are other vendors who need more than two hundred pages,” said Christophe Loetz, Managing Director of Compex Systemhaus GmbH. “Our customers don’t have to deal with a confusing component puzzle, nor complex metrics, nor expensive re-licensing. And we certainly don’t push any technology in order to assert a new licensing model.”
User representatives have repeatedly reacted with skepticism to the cloud offerings made by certain software vendors, as it entails a subscription license model. They worry that the result will be higher costs in the long run – especially for long-lasting ERP systems. On top of that, users fear that it will be difficult or even impossible to keep up with the frequent releases issued by vendors at ever shorter intervals. These permanent, forced updates cause considerable internal expenses for users and their software partners – although, in many cases, they cannot recognize any benefits resulting from the updates.
Perpetual license – long-term partnership
In contrast, Compex customers can check in advance whether the benefits of any new release are worth the trouble. They are used to estimating what added value they would generate in their businesses and how much project work would be required for the introduction.
“We value fair, cooperative collaboration with our customers, some of whom we have supported for decades,” Loetz continued. “The base for this is our modern software, which has proven to be future-proof again and again. It saves our customers major upheavals. They only use the new releases if they see any added value in them.”
Modern software design
Compex Commerce has been implemented based on a model-oriented and service-oriented architecture and has proven to be expandable again and again for decades. Moreover, modern no-code / low-code technology has enabled Compex to create and customize new components faster than ever before.
For example, the Aurich wholesaler Schüt-Duis has been using Compex Commerce since 1994. While the scope of the wholesaler’s business expanded over the years, the software developed along to accommodate the changes. Schüt-Duis originally traded in doors, windows and related goods. These days, the company designs and produces insulating glass, roller shutters and goods related to aluminum construction. After 25 years of operation, Dieter Hainke, Head of IT at Schüt-Duis Fenster & Türtechnik GmbH & Co. KG, concluded: “The Compex software has proven to be stable, powerful and future-proof.” Hainke emphasized the flexible adaptability of the individual modules as well as the release compatibility of Compex Commerce. This enabled Schüt-Duis to use the new releases only when they saw that it would result in a real benefit for their company.